Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said the study “re-emphasizes the need for Republicans to end their entrenchment and to stop blocking a vote on the Senate bill that would extend the middle-class tax cuts.”Levin was referring to Senate-passed legislation that would allow the Bush-era tax cuts to expire on families making more than $250,000. House Democrats filed a discharge petition to bring the bill to the floor, but so far it hasn’t garnered the signatures needed to force a vote.

Levin hopes the report encourages Boehner to bring the Senate bill to the floor, something that Texas Republican Kevin Brady told POLITICO on Thursday morning would be “unlikely."

The CRS report “put a stake in the heart of the Republican argument that small increases in the marginal tax rate for wealthy individuals somehow hurt economic growth,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee.(more)